1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains in general to devices for mounting cellular telephone cradles to automobiles, and more particularly, to an adaptor module attached to a cellular telephone cradle for electrically connecting cellular telephone accessories to a cellular telephone.
2. Description of Related Art
Increasingly, cellular telephone accessories such as speaker phones, auxiliary handsets, and modems are being connected to cellular telephones. In addition, hand-held cellular telephones are frequently placed in a cradle or docking station when used in an automobile. These cradles allow hand-held cellular telephones to use hands free speakerphone equipment, vehicle power supplies, externally mounted antenna, and auxiliary transmitters having greater transmitting output power than the hand held cellular telephone transmitter. In the past, the use of cellular telephone accessories and the use of a cradle were mutually exclusive activities with the user having to choose between placing the hand-held cellular telephone in the cradle or attaching a cellular telephone accessory directly to the cellular telephone. To address this problem, the cellular telephone cradle and various cellular telephone accessories can be connected to each other via an interface system which connects and arbitrates between the various components. While such an interface system allows the various components to interface with one another, connections to the interface system are cumbersome and spread about the vehicle or located in inconvenient locations. It would be advantageous, therefore, to devise a modular assembly which centrally locates connections between the cellular telephone and the various cellular telephone accessories to a position near the cellular telephone cradle. Furthermore, it would be advantageous for the modular assembly to be easily mounted to a mounting surface together with a standard cellular telephone cradle.